With an interest in the aviation history of Bermuda, I have made many trips to this, Britain’s oldest territory, for both research and family holidays since the 1970s. My aviation research has resulted in the book Wings over Bermuda — 100 years of aviation in the West Atlantic, which was published by the National Museum of Bermuda in early 2014.

During these visits to Britain’s oldest colony, I always kept an eye out for my other love, old cars, especially Morris Minors. There seemed to be quite a few around in the 1970s, but I am sorry to say I neglected to take pictures or chat to owners back in those days. However, recent visits have allowed me to spend more time chasing the Minor survivors with my camera and this article will tell a little of their history on this beautiful island.

With the idea of writing an article, I set out to find out as much as I could about the Minor in Bermuda. I already knew that hundreds, if not thousands, had been imported since the early 1950s, as archive street photographs always had Minors in them and locals all seem to have had one at some time. With 75 per cent of the first year of Minor production exported, followed by more than 80 per cent in 1950 and 90 per cent in 1951, there were obviously a good number of right-hand drive models sent to Bermuda.

Determined to find out just how many, I visited the car showroom of Pearman Watlington & Co in the City of Hamilton, capital of Bermuda. Pearman Watlington had been the distributor in Bermuda for Nuffield Exports Ltd and later a BMC dealer. It was sadly unable to help, as all documents from the early days had been destroyed.

I next made an appointment to see someone at the Transport Control Department. It is responsible for the registration and testing of all vehicles on the roads of Bermuda. The people there were very helpful but were unable to extract the right sort of information from their computer system. Next to ask how many Minors went to Bermuda was the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust in the UK. Richard Bacchus, the certificate officer, told me: “I’m afraid there would be no way to establish this; the export dispatch records just state ‘Nuffield Exports’ without stating their final destination. So unless there was something specific about these vehicles, which would be recorded in the build details, there’s no way of knowing how many went to Bermuda.”

So that was that, a search of available online newspaper archives in Bermuda found a couple of adverts but no further details that would help with the total number imported. One Pearman Watlington advert from December 1952 announced the arrival “just in time for Christmas” of the four-door OHV (overhead valve) Minor (split screen) for £495.

The Bermuda Police Force owned several Minors — Vans, Travellers and Saloons — and photos of two of them have come to light. Traveller P6338 is seen on these pages around 1967 with Constable Ralph Sealy, who was born in Barbados. Ralph, who served as parish constable in Devonshire, has many fond memories of driving P6338. He mentions that before coming to Bermuda, he worked in the Maritime Office in Barbados, where his supervisor drove a Morris Minor and ever since then these have been one his “fave” cars. The van, JX181, is seen with dog handler Pc Gordon Howard, who hailed from Liverpool and came to Bermuda to join the force in the mid-Sixties. The photo of JX181 was used by Oxford Diecast to create the replica van, of which 2,000 were produced in the UK.

Readers may be interested to know that private motoring was allowed on the island only from August 1946 and, by September 1947, there were 758 private cars registered. Ownership of private cars is still highly restricted, with only one car per household normally allowed. If Dad has a car, Mum and the children have to go without or just use a motor scooter or the bus like everyone else. Despite the island-wide speed limit of 21mph, the island has more vehicle accidents (mostly scooters/motorbikes) per square mile than anywhere else in the world. Because the island is so small (21 square miles) and the roads are narrow, windy and very crowded, tourists are not allowed to hire cars — only scooters or bicycles. They cannot even drive a car belonging to a friend or relative who is resident.

Import restrictions for motor vehicles are very strict and, in general, only new cars or those less than six months old are allowed to be imported into Bermuda; even they must comply with stringent local qualifying standards in maximum length (175in), maximum width (71in); maximum engine capacity (2,000cc) and maximum power to weight ratio of 10.5kg/kW. Amazingly, even the paint designs have to be approved by TCD.

Despite this, the Government has recognised that some owners of older cars/vans wanted to keep them on the road as second cars for use other than commuting, etc. To this end, TCD introduced a scheme that allowed owners of classic cars to keep them and their regular vehicle, provided that only one was on the road at any one time. The classic cars were allocated a “Sunday permit” that allowed them to be driven on Sundays, public holidays and under special permit provided they had been registered in Bermuda for a minimum of 25 years and also licensed as a private car a minimum of 15 years. A special registration number series prefixed “CLC” was started for the classics and an annual register of them kept by the Bermuda Classic Car Association, more on which later. The rules also stated that all Classic private motor cars should be housed in garages or sheds on members’ properties or on other sites with similar accommodations.

The special “CLC” registered classics are not the only classic cars on the roads of Bermuda. If a Bermudian uses a classic car only for their transport, then that car can be registered in the regular registration series for cars, which is just a number with no letters. Interestingly, over the past few years, Bermuda had allowed residents to apply personalised number plates with one football fan using CHLSEA.

The present roadworthy Minor population appears to be two saloons, two or more Travellers and a single van. The 1971 van — light commercial registration L3616 — is owned by Paul Martins, of Martins Precision Automotive. Paul is a true enthusiast and has worked on most of the classic cars in Bermuda, although his big love is classic bikes. In Paul’s yard is the only surviving split-screen Traveller in Bermuda. Sadly, this pale blue example is in dreadful condition, but Paul is pretty skilled with a welding torch, so you never know. His van, decked out in a garish orange, with “Bermuda Triangle Choppers” titles, has been seriously modified over several years, with the cab now welded to the back, brake improvements, wide wheels, sills welded up (no removable kickplate, etc) although it still retains a 1,098cc engine. Paul uses the van every weekday to commute to work.

The two four-door saloons — registration numbers 07938 and 10206 — belong to cousins Kenneth Easton and Stuart Easton. Both cars are 48 years old, still have their original engines and are still with their original owners. Both of them have very smart non-standard front grilles with unusual chromed vertical slats. Until recently, the origin of these grilles was something of a mystery, but an expert on Ford cars has identified the badge on the grille as coming from a Ford Consul Mk1.

It looks like some Bermudian Minor owners preferred the Consul grille and managed to get several modified.

The roadworthy Travellers are 1969 snowberry white “CL-C4” (previously “18242”) owned by Paul Fortuna and 1969 blue “08568” owned by Tyrone Chin. Both Travellers were airfreighted by British Airways to Morris Minor specialist Charles Ware’s garage for full restoration and upgrade in 1999 by owner Judy Montgomery-Moore. Her son tells the story that if one broke down, she swapped over the numberplate and carried on using the other. No one noticed. Just like the Morris Minor — often called a Moggie Minor or simply Moggie in Britain — in the TV series Open All Hours, it was once owned by a district nurse; this one’s owner was Mrs Moura rather than Gladys Emmanuel.

Off the road undergoing restoration is a four-door saloon belonging to classic bike and car enthusiast Zach Sagurs. His snowberry white 1969 example “10882” has 64,000 miles on the clock and two previous owners. Zach tells me that this was the last new Minor to be sold by a dealer in Bermuda. More than 20 years ago, it had a “Merlin” chassis kit fitted to it. This Minor also sports the chrome vertical grille seen on the Easton’s Minors.

There are other Minors — one must be 00930 — stored in various garages and sheds around the island, including a rusty purple convertible “01971”, which is owned by Charlotte Bosch de Noya. This is in need of some major floor welding work and may be beyond help.

Another Bermuda connection is, of course, the lovely Bermuda blue colour, which can be seen on many Minors in the UK. That colour also features on the Oxford Diecast 1/43 Minor van in Bermuda Police colours.

Other classic cars tucked away include an MG Midget, a Lanchester, various MGBs — one was registered GB 1; another 15434 — a Herald saloon, a VW Beetle, a Karman Ghia, a Ford Capri, a Triumph TR7, an Austin 10, a 1961 Singer Vogue “08644” owned by Donald Lindo, a Hillman Super Minx “CL-C1”, an A55 Austin Cambridge, 1948 MG TC “CL-C10” and a 1960s Hillman Husky “08590”. Even the Governor’s old Daimler DS420 Limousine survives and one chap reportedly has four Minors hidden in his yard.

Back in 2009, I even saw a very rare Fiat 124 Spyder “19146” in need of restoration. Finding spare parts for these old cars is virtually impossible, as there are no stocks of NOS (new old stock) spares and no scrapyards as we know them on the island.

All cars due for scrapping are actually dumped in the sea near the airport and covered over with rocks and soil to create new land. The Bermuda Classic Car Association is supposed to look after the classic car registration series, but a few years ago the organiser told me that the association was pretty much dead. How this will affect the future of classic cars on the island remains to be seen.

•&Copy; Copyright Morris Minor Owners Club 2016. This material may not be used or published elsewhere without the permission of the editor of Minor Matters, the club magazine of the UK’s Morris Minor Owners Club